A new law to toughen Iowa's ban on texting while driving, generally lauded by law enforcement officials and state legislators, takes effect Saturday.

"You cannot text. You cannot Facebook. You can still make a phone call, but you cannot be actually texting as you drive down the road," said Trooper Alex Dinkla, an Iowa State Patrol spokesman.

But questions from opponents remain about the law's potential negative impacts on minorities and whether the government is trying to micromanage motorists' lives.

“Obviously, it is a terrible idea to text and drive. But how many more laws do we need to pass demonstrating common sense?" said state Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale. "What is this going to come to? Are we going to have to Bubble Wrap everybody?"

The new law makes texting while driving a primary offense. That allows law officers to issue a citation if they simply observe a driver texting behind the wheel, even if there is no other violation. Under the old law, motorists could be ticketed for texting only if they committed another offense, such as speeding or running a red light.

It also prohibits motorists from web browsing and playing electronic games. But you can use global positioning systems for navigation.

Iowa authorities said officers will be on the lookout to pull over texting violators during the heavy travel period surrounding the Fourth of July holiday.

According to the United States Department of Transportation, text messaging while driving creates a crash risk 23 times higher than driving while not distracted. The Governors Highway Safety Association says 47 states ban text messaging by all drivers and 14 states prohibit all drivers from using hand-held cellphones.

The Iowa legislation was supported by a host of groups that included representatives of the insurance industry, law enforcement, bicyclists and others.

But some legislators who voted against the new law said they are concerned about an overreach of government authority. They point out that motorists are also distracted by car radios, pets and children, or eating while driving.

State Sen. Dennis Guth, R-Klemme, who also voted against the legislation, remarked, "At some point we have to say, 'We have done enough.'"

Some other legislators contended that while the new law has good intentions, it will be difficult to enforce. It requires police officers to obtain a search warrant before confiscating a driver's cellphone to verify whether they were actually typing a text message.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and the NAACP of Iowa-Nebraska also opposed the legislation. Daniel Zeno, ACLU-Iowa's policy counsel, warned lawmakers that the change would worsen issues of racial disparity in Iowa's criminal justice system.

"Right now, an African-American person in Iowa is seven times more likely to be arrested for a drug offense, eight times more likely for marijuana possession. So there are already huge racial disparities," Zeno told The Des Moines Register. "This will be yet another way for officers to stop people, and logically, we think it could increase the racial disparities."

Legislative analysts said a review concluded the impact of the law upon racial minorities is not known yet. Under the existing texting ban, Caucasians received 76 percent of tickets, African-Americans received 2.5 percent, Latinos received 2 percent, Asians received 2 percent, and 17.4 percent were not known.

Patrick Hoye, chief of the Iowa Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau, defended the new law, saying the right of motorists to send a text while driving doesn't outweigh the public safety risks. He added that an expansion of any traffic safety law could bring an objection that it negatively impacts minorities, suggesting there is broad agreement that texting while driving is a major safety concern.

CLOSE

The majority of Iowans think law enforcement officers should be allowed to pull over a vehicle if they see the driver texting, according to a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll.
Wochit

A statewide survey of 802 Iowa adults conducted in February found overwhelming public support for a stricter ban on texting and driving. The Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll found 88 percent of Iowans believe officers should be able to pull a driver over solely for texting while driving. Ten percent were opposed and 1 percent were not sure.

Under the new law, the fine for texting while driving remains at $30, but court costs and surcharges are estimated at $70.50 per violation, making the total cost $100.50 per ticket, according to the Legislative Services Agency.

During the state's 2016 fiscal year, only 242 drivers were convicted in Iowa for texting while operating a motor vehicle. Based on a law in Utah that is similar to Iowa's new statute, Iowa will have an estimated 1,173 violations in the 2018 state fiscal year and 2,347 violations in the 2019 fiscal year, the Legislative Services Agency estimates.

The analysis also indicates the number of convictions for texting while driving is expected to increase under the new statute, although it is still expected to remain relatively low.

Sgt. Paul Parizek of the Des Moines Police Department said he anticipates the new anti-texting law will be enforced like any other statute within the city limits.

"It is not a mandatory citation. It is discretionary. But if it is a contributing factor to an accident, I think you will see a lot of citations written," Parizek said.

AAA: Texting while driving is seen as a threat, but it's common

A new national survey by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety shows that motorists could be their own worst enemy when it comes to mobile phone use behind the wheel:

TEXTING: Most drivers view texting or emailing while driving as a very serious threat to their own personal safety and consider it completely unacceptable. However, nearly one in three (31.4 percent) admit to typing or sending a text message or email while driving in the past month, and two in five (40.2 percent) report reading a text message or email while driving in the past month.

TALKING: Cellphone use while driving is widespread. More than two in three drivers report talking on their cellphone while driving in the past month, and nearly one in three say they do so fairly often or regularly.

Homicide-by-vehicle statute also updated

In a separate, but related, new Iowa law, the state's homicide-by-vehicle statute has been expanded to say that a person's use of a hand-held mobile phone or other electronic communications device to write, send or read an electronic text message while driving a motor vehicle that causes a fatality will be considered evidence that they were operating in a reckless manner.